Cold brew coffee is usually made by soaking ground roasted coffee beans for 10-14 hours at room temperature, resulting in up to 70% of the soluble solids remaining within the bean that is then discarded.

In response, Flavourtech has developed the following solutions:

• The Rotating Disc Column (RDC) is a precise mixing column with accurate control of residence time and temperature. Producers who trialled the technology found they preferred the products taste and were surprised to find that residence times were only 20 minutes and yields of soluble solids were up to 40% more than batch processes.
• The Spinning Cone Column (SCC) can be used to increase the use of soluble solids by: processing a coffee slurry through the SCC at room temperature, producing a cold brew coffee. The spent beans are mixed with water and passed through the SCC at 90-100oC to produce a RTD coffee. Aroma is also recovered for addition to the extract or other products. The SCC has the benefit of allowing producers of coffee and tea beverages to produce both cold brew and RTD products, maximising the utilisation of their coffee beans and helping to reduce costs of production.